custom framing styles » Dutch picture frames

Antique reproduction Dutch Frame Hermanus Koekkoek the Elder, 19 century Dutch marine painting

 

Antique Reproduction Dutch Picture Frames:

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From as early as the 10^th and 11^th centuries the Dutch have been able to showcase their financial, mercantile, and cultural successes through their artistry. The manner in which they framed their art was an extremely important aesthetic element that helped to accentuate the portrayal of Dutch paintings. The climax of Dutch artistic accomplishment most definitively occurred during the 16^th and 17^th centuries with the establishment of the Dutch Republic in 1609 and the development of the Dutch East India Company.  Not only were they able to support their artistic endeavors by means of their excessive wealth from international trade, but the Dutch were also able to exhibit their national pride by incorporating themes of power and sovereignty into their art.

The linear simplicity of Dutch framing takes its root in the environment of the Netherlands.  This correlation is not limited to outdoors and nature: it relates moreover to elements involving architecture, interior design of buildings and homes, and even furniture production. For example, the large windows common in Dutch homes and buildings let in great amounts of natural light, which in turn created little need for gold gilding to brighten a painting, such as was used to capture candlelight in interior settings more common in Spain, Italy or France.  Many of these early 16^th century Dutch frames may have included bands of subtle colors or gold gilding to enhance a painting, yet they primarily emphasized the lack of such ostentatious elements. Dutch culture in the 16^th century, particularly in the North, began to emphasize the patrician and the middle class more so than the royalty.

Dutch ebony finish cassetta frame with gilded liner

 

Antique reproduction- double panel with ripple, ebonized, 18th Century

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